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The famed 16th century Danish astronomer and mathematician Tycho Brahe was long assumed to have died from poisoning. Recently, archaeologists pored over his skeleton to reveal the real cause of his early death: a fatal combination of obesity, diabetes, and alcoholism.

Writing in the journal PLOS One last month, Durham University archaeologist Sacha Kacki and colleagues detail the last days of the famed scientist, who died in Prague on October 24, 1601, following a sudden illness. Brahe's symptoms first appeared after he attended a banquet -- namely, he seemed to be unable to urinate. Speculation about whether he suffered a bladder rupture, kidney stone, or mercury poisoning abounded for centuries. The reopening of Brahe's grave in 1901 and 2010 revealed that he wore an artificial nose (as a result of an injury sustained in a duel) and that he had not been poisoned (although he had been exposed to arsenic and mercury).

Kacki and colleagues decided to thoroughly analyze the remains of Brahe's skeleton in order to figure out the state of his overall health as well as potential causes of his death. The archaeologists found abundant evidence of bone changes consistent with a condition known as diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis or DISH. A systemic disorder, DISH often involves fusion of two or more vertebrae, resulting in a "candlewax" appearance of extra bone growth and lessened range of motion.

The second clue to Brahe's health that the researchers found was in his diet. Kacki and colleagues tested his carbon and nitrogen isotope values from a fragment of his thigh bone and discovered that he had been consuming much more meat and fish than the average person at the time. This protein-rich diet likely led to the third problem they found: obesity. Using the ratio between the length of the thigh bone and the diameter of its marrow cavity, the researchers concluded that Brahe could be reliably classified as obese.

But the correlation among Brahe's diet, obesity, DISH, and death is somewhat less clear. Kacki and colleagues write, "Whereas it is most likely that DISH represented only a minor inconvenience for Tycho Brahe and did not have any relevant impact on his daily life and health status, some co-morbidities of the condition, if present, could have been life-threatening and may have played some role in the sudden illness he suffered at the end of his life."

Turning to historical literature, the researchers learned more about Brahe's symptoms in his final days, including coma and urinary retention, and scoured contemporary medical literature on hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state (HHS), which is common in people with type 2 diabetes. Symptoms of HHS include "signs of dehydration, weakness, legs cramps, delirium, and an altered level of consciousness that evolves not infrequently to profound lethargy or coma," the researchers write. "Such a syndrome appears as a possible cause of the symptoms Brahe endured during his very last days. This hypothesis is compatible with the known fatal outcome of his sudden illness, since mortality associated with HSS is between 10% and 20% in current clinical practice."

Tycho Brahe's grave in Prague

Robert Scarth / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY SA 2.0

However, one final clue from historical records is Brahe's alcoholism, as he was notorious for drinking great quantities of wine and other alcoholic beverages. Alcohol abuse may cause serious metabolic disturbances, including alcoholic ketoacidosis, the researchers note. "This condition manifests itself suddenly and constitutes in modern days a fairly common cause of sudden, unexpected death in heavy drinkers" known as ketoalcoholic death.

"These results, along with those of the isotopic analysis, give a glimpse into the lifestyle of the famous astronomer," Kacki and colleagues conclude, "revealing the dietary excesses a 16th century high-ranking individual could have afforded -- high caloric intake and presumably excessive alcohol consumption. They also reveal the possible health consequences such a prestigious way of life could have had."

Tycho Brahe's obesity, probable untreated diabetes, and fondness for binge-drinking may therefore have done him in at the ripe old age of 54. Centuries before James Dean, the famous astronomer and mathematician may have been the original proponent of "live fast, die young."